![]() The Steam Controller is attempting to shrink those movements down, from being something that used my wrist and arm, to something that uses the joint of my thumb. The adaptability of being able to adjust the speed of movement over X and Y coordinates is one of the reasons mouse control has had a huge advantage over gamepads in certain genres of play. When set up properly within in-game settings, and sensitivity is adjusted within Steam’s Steam Controller configuration options, the right disc can come pretty damn close to replicating the positive attributes of a mouse. It’s a bit like the sensation of spinning a mouse wheel. As I slide my thumb over the surface, it will give subtle bumps and clicks, giving me a tactile confirmation that inputs are being made. When I have a game running that relies heavily on a mouse, the disc internals seem to manually switch gears into a much more tactile mode of response. The most important feature of the Steam Controller are the discs, which act like the sensing pads on a laptop. Both discs can be pushed down into various forms of tilt, but that isn’t exactly how they are supposed to work. But it doesn’t act like a D-pad, so don’t be confused. The left disc provides a slight indentation of a cross, suggesting that movement or D-pad-like functions should go there. The right disc is smooth and invites my thumb to spin and slide around on its surface. The discs are the most glaringly obvious visual trait of the Steam Controller, and they’re also the most interesting. It also leaves my right thumb occasionally reaching over, looking for the other stick. One control stick sits opposite of the face buttons, around where my left hand would expect it on a Sony PlayStation-based controller. ![]() But the placement is slightly inconvenient compared to other gamepad designs. ![]() It’s not a horrible placement, and looking at the overall layout, I can’t recommend a better sport for them. These buttons are placed just 8 o’clock of the right disc. You can be disruptive and design around your magnificent discs, but you still need to provide me with a diamond of four jeweled buttons. This angle also makes twirling my thumbs around the disc’s surface incredibly comfortable, almost to the point of making everything else on the face of the controller a little annoying to access. It becomes obvious that, after a couple of minutes of use, the face buttons (X, Y, A, and B) are there more out of our stubborn necessity to stick with that convention. This shape forces my thumbs to land on the two opposing control discs, which are probably the Steam Controller’s most noticeable and important attribute. What’s most unique about the Steam Controller’s molding, however, is the top portion of the unit is also concave, as opposed to a rounder outward slope that every other modern gamepad adopts. ![]() My point fingers wind up laying naturally right on top of the left and right triggers, which are molded with a swoop to allow the roundness of the finger to lay comfortably. My middle, ring, and pinkie fingers naturally wrap down into a concave in the back, which wind up laying on top of two additional button inputs. The Steam Controller’s body takes on the familiar boomerang gamepad mold, allowing for two comfortable prongs to lay gently in my palms. Maybe I just wasn’t ready for what the Steam Controller was trying to do? Maybe Valve needed to tinker with the design a bit more to get things right? Could a year of maturity for both myself and the concept be all that was needed? Let’s see. More than a year has passed, and I am once again holding the Steam Controller in my hands. Yet when I tried it out, the Steam Controller just left me grumpy and confused.
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